What is arsenic?

You may be familiar with its ancient history as a lethal poison, but do you know the dangers of arsenic as a water-borne contaminant? Natural geology & human activity can dissolve arsenic into your drinking water.

Arsenic is a tasteless, odorless, and naturally occurring element and poison.

Arsenic is a Group 1 carcinogen with an ancient history of use as a lethal poison and a more recent and tragic history as a water-borne contaminant.

Arsenic dissolve from soil and rock into aquifers and drinking water supplies.

Unfortunately, arsenic is ubiquitous in the earth’s crust and frequently comes in contact with our drinking water supply when it dissolves from rock and soil into underground aquifers.

Groundwater drawn from underground aquifers can contain a range of arsenic concentrations from less than 1 microgram per liter, or 1 part per billion
(ppb) to more than 1,000 micrograms per liter, or 1,000 ppb. Unless removed by a specified water treatment technology, arsenic passes into your tap water and bioaccumulates in your body.

Arsenic in the US

The history of arsenic in drinking water is tragic, hurting millions globally and marginalizing small and rural communities everywhere.

Especially in the US.

Arsenic contamination in US drinking water threatens more than 56 million people in 25 states.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s global health policy transitioned millions of communities from surface water supplies to “safer” ground water supplies. In 1993, the world learned that these efforts had exposed hundreds of millions of people to arsenic contaminated aquifers.

An aquifer is an underground layer of water, often sourced by communities for drinking water wells and agriculture.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a dramatic campaign against arsenic in America, utilizing extensive Federal, State, University, and Industry expertise to better understand arsenic threats and establish a new Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), or health safety level, for public drinking water.

170,000 Public Community Drinking Water Systems in the USA serve 85% of all Americans.

In 2001, the EPA changed the Public Health Standard for arsenic from 50 ppb to 10 ppb. The municipal water industry could not afford the same level of arsenic free water which health experts recommended. Health experts advocated for tighter standards (down to 3 ppb) but the EPA ultimately chose the 10 ppb standard, citing the prohibitively high costs of lower arsenic further.

Arsenic contamination threatens more than 100,000,000 people globally. Living in the United States does not guarantee your safety from arsenic, in fact, American groundwater is among the most contaminated water sources on earth.

Conventional arsenic removal technologies are not affordable to small water systems.

Public water system managers and the US EPA have worked hard to find affordable technologies for arsenic removal.

Without affordable arsenic removal technologies, the government has resorted to blending water sources to dilute arsenic levels, paying companies to deliver bottled water, or connecting homes to distant water supplies by pipeline.

“The average cost of compliance with the EPA’s arsenic rule is 70% of the total cost of delivered tap water in affected communities.”

More than 95% of these public drinking water systems are called Small Water Systems (SWS) because they serve fewer than 10,000 people.

Small Water Systems are demographically and geographically heterogeneous.

They are often more rural than medium and large systems

Most SWS do not have paid employees but rely on the hard work of volunteer water system managers

More than 70% of the smallest class of SWS do not have metered water infrastructure and water bills are the same regardless of usage!

Many SWS cannot afford expensive treatment technologies and must rely on bottle water, imported water, or unsafe water if contamination becomes an issue

Improving access to local water supplies promotes local reliance, sustainability, environmental justice, and many other benefits derived from community-level water management